Reversing camera fitting guide

Camera fitting notes

Thank you for your purchase. Although we recommend the camera is fitted by a qualified auto-electrician we do get requests for help from people fitting them themselves. The following points should be considered before fitting.

Always use an inline fuse on the positive feed to the camera. The cameras use less than 0.1 amps so a quick blow fuse of 1 or 2 amps is ideal. This should be as close to where you take the positive feed as possible. Not using a fuse can cause serious damage to the vehicle electrical system in the event of a fault. Always double and treble check you have the polarity of the wires correct. If incorrect the camera will be damaged beyond repair and you will short out the vehicle electrics. If attached to a monitor such as a head unit that gets damaged as well – we know a case of a £1000 head unit smoking through this! Check the outer of the RCA cable is not live if you are attaching it to a monitor. In theory a fuse should blow, but not before damage has been caused.

Never drill holes in the vehicle until you have fully tested the system. You should never get your positive feed direct from the battery. Look for spare fuse holders in the fuse box from where you can take a power source. If your vehicle uses CANBUS or multiplex lighting then seriously consider leaving it for the qualified experts.

Not all fitters are qualified – we have seen some awful examples of poor wiring by “qualified” fitters.

If you get a poor picture then it might not be a camera problem. Most problems are caused by the sun and high levels of UV light. For example if you point a camera over an area with lots of grass you often get a very poor image with “white grass” especially if the sun is fairly low in the sky with the camera facing it. The sun can cause vertical or horizontal lines or severe glare if directly behind. Fortunately it should not be a big issue in our climate.

Remember to clean the front of the camera. On many models the camera may go into black and white night mode due to the area in front of the sensor getting dirty.

Reversing cameras can be wired in to the reversing light so they get power when reverse is selected (beware of vehicles with CANBUS and multiplex lights). A variation on this is to wire it in to the side lights. When you want the camera on then you turn the lights on. Alternatively you can wire it in to the same power source as the monitor and have it powered up all the time the ignition is on. The camera will not be harmed by this and it keeps it warm to prevent condensation forming on the glass. If your vehicle has bulb failure indicators then be aware that attaching a camera may affect this.

Make sure all electrical connections are fully sealed against water ingress. Professional fitters will even add an extra layer of waterproofing to the 4 pin waterproof connectors on some cameras.